Brick By Boring Brick
by RedRubyStorm
Summary: One-shot songfic. Summary: The Jellicles were captured, all of them. Macavity was using Monarch Programming on those unfortunate ones. Can it be reversed? Will they get out okay? BAD summary - I'm really bad at them. T because it's less than cheerful.


**Me + Boredom + Inability to stop listening to listening/getting song out of my head = this. Did I plan much? Noooo. Do I ever? Not really.**

**And I picture them the way they look in the movie, by the way. *I don't own Cats or Alice in Wonderland or Paramore or Cinderella or the 3 little pigs * (The list of things I don't own keeps growing as I listen to the song...)**

**Note that everything mentioned about what is/was happening to Jemima was in Demeter's imagination; Demeter didn't really know what was going on.**

_Italics in quotations: The song  
_Normal: Present.

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Demeter looked through the glass sadly. Macavity had captured them, all of them. Old Deuteronomy was dead, Mistoffelees was God knows where with Coricopat and Tantomile -well, somewhere in this wretched place, his hideout- Munkustrap was being held prisoner somewhere. They were mostly seperated. Demeter's room was three solid walls, then glass leading into a room entitled "The Operating Room". What went on in there was horrible, and Demeter had a front row seat to it. Macavity'd been forcing Jenny and Jelly to "improve" various Jellicles. For them, it wasn't do what he said or instant death, it was either do what he said or have _him _operate on the Jellicles. And they all knew that Macavity would operate incorrectly, probably causing those who were operated on even more pain. Then again, Demeter figured, what he was making Jennyanydots and Jellylorum do wasn't much better. He'd also threatened to operate on Demeter... she shuddered, thinking of this.

At the time being, Jemima was the victim. It was cruel, Demeter having nothing to do but watch them hook the machines up to her head... everything. It made her feel sick inside.

What Macavity was forcing Jenny and Jelly to do to the Jellicles is called Monarch Programming. To put it simply, Monarch Programming was when they forced someone's brain into trauma, then the victim is told to go to a "Happy Place". But Demeter knew it wouldn't be happy in Jemima's mind for long. The "Happy Place" usually involves castles, mirrors, mushrooms, similar to an old book Demeter'd heard about a long time ago, Alice in Wonderworld, or something. Then the trauma splits the victim's -Jemima's- mind, so that it can be controlled. And this was all happening to little, sweet, innocent Jemima. Who was barely even a queen. Demeter knew, that even if somehow she came back to controlling her own thoughts, she would never be the same. None of them would be, not even the ones who hadn't been operated on. Then Jelly and Jenny left, into their room. Demeter looked at the door into the room behind the glass. She'd never tried it before, too afraid that alarms or something would go off, and that _he'd _come and get her.

But at that point, she didn't care. She pushed on the door, and miraculously, it opened. She paused, waiting to see if their would be anyone come running, alarms go off, the works. Someone had made an alarm go off a couple days ago - must have tried to escape. But this door opened without anything happening. Demeter slowly let it swing shut behind her, praying at the last second that it wouldn't lock her out. Then she looked down at Jemima's limp form, on a table below her.

Demeter clenched her teeth, so she wouldn't cry, or wail, or something. Jemima looked so... lifeless. Demeter could only imagine what was going on in her head. So she did, while singing a song she made up on the spot, which Macavity had banned; singing, he knew it would be hard for all of them not to express themselves like that. But Demeter really didn't care.

First she tried to draw up in her mind what Jemmy might be seeing in her influenced mind. First Demeter imagined a dirt path, surrounded by trees and other plants. It came as a thought to her to hope that she wasn't Monarch Programming herself, but she pushed that thought away. Through closed eyes, Demeter saw Jemima walk through a sunlit path, looking around in wonder. There was a light in a bottle, Jemmy touched it, mouth opened, but then drew her paw back in fear. The first glimce of horror, Demeter knew. Then Demeter began to sing while imagining,

_"She lives in a fairy tale, somewhere too far for us to find." _She didn't care how loud she was, she was so sick of this life. _"Forgotten the taste and smell of a world that she's left behind. It's all about the exposure, the lens I told her. The angles are all wrong now, she's ripping wings off of butterflies. Keep your feet on the ground, when your head's in the clouds. Well, go get your shovel, and we'll dig a deep hole. To bury the castle, bury the castle." _Demeter wanted Jemima's -and the rest of the Jellicles'- castles gone. She wanted to be back at the Junkyard, with everyone okay. It was a pity she couldn't fool herself the way she used to. _"Go get your shovel! And we'll dig a deep hole! To bury the castle, bury the castle! Ba-da ba ba-da ba ba da." _She added a bit of rhythm.

She saw Jemima examining some flowers, smelling them, rolling in them, as was natural for all of them; it was part of their cat side. It brought tears to Demeter's eyes. The two had been together before they all were captured. And she'd told Jem that everything would be okay, but she saw no way to get everyone who was left out. Even if only Demeter escaped, one queen wouldn't be able to bring down Macavity's empire and get everyone else out. She saw sparkly things - fireflies. Flowers, birds, butterflies. It scared her to think of the horror that imaginary world would become.

Then she saw Jem get tired, and she curled up on the dusty, rocky ground. Demeter imagined it to sleep. Then some handsome, human guy -which Jemima always had adored, for some reason; humans- came up and spoke to her in a soft voice. Demeter didn't have to imagine what he would say. So instead, she continued with the song, _"So one day, he found her crying, coiled up on the dirty ground. Her prince finally came to save her, and the rest you can figure out." _Demeter saw red while she continued, _"But it was a trick, and the clock struck twelve." _She quoted another old human fairy tale, Cinderblock, or something, _"Well, make sure to build your home brick by boring brick, or the wolf's gonna blow it down." _Meaning, don't live in a fantasy world -or be forced into one- you have to live you life in reality, no matter how boring or painful it might be. Just got to build your life up, brick by boring brick.

She imagined the world getting darker. She saw a big hulking beast, some-what resembling Macavity, who had caused all of this. She saw a few mushrooms, with one of Jemmy's worst fears on them - a frog. She was terrified by them. Then Jem turned and ran in the opposite direction, towards -what was missing? Oh yeah, a castle, Demeter figured- a big stone castle. Dem began to sing again, a little more calm then before, _"Keep your feet on the ground, when you head's in the clouds. Well, go get your shovel! And we'll dig a deep hole! To bury the castle, bury the castle! Go get your shovel! And we'll dig a deep hole! And we'll bury the castle, bury the castle! Whoa, Whoa!"_

Demeter saw Jem inside now, there were a lot of mirrors. Jem was walking slowly, as if something would attack her from behind one, which, Demeter figured, something very well might. Demeter was letting her imagination run away, she wanted to know what was going on inside of Jemima without really experiencing it herself. Now there was a creepy little puppet-guy creeping up behind Jem, who whipped around, then looked like she might cry. There were other faces in the mirrors too, and then all the sunlight that had been pouring through the windows was gone, replaced by darkness and fear. She saw lightning around Jem. Then she sang, hoping Macavity would somehow hear this, _"Well, you built up a world of magic!" _This wasn't to Jemima anymore, it was sheer anger directed at Macavity, _"Because your real life is tragic, yeah you built up a world of magic!" _Her voice was steadily rising louder, and she _hoped _he would hear her, given he didn't have cameras in this room anyway.

The faces in the mirror-room that she imagined Jemima in suddenly turned more monster-like than anything. And Jemmy was looking around, frightened beyond belief. There was the beast from before, but now it looked hungry and dirty, and like it was going to attack Jem. Suddenly Demeter felt very tired, and she sat down on the table next to Jem. She sang, no longer in an angry tone, and no longer close to screaming, and to Jemima, _"If it's not real, you can't hold it in your hand, you can't feel it with your heart, and I won't believe it. But if it's true you can see it with your eyes, or even in the dark, and that's where I want to be, yeah." _There was a man with an axe, another with a bat, both looking for Jemmy. And the beast was there, too. Jemima started to run, back down the paths. Demeter's voice got angry and loud again, _"Go get your shovel! And we'll dig a deep hole! To bury the castle, bury the castle! Go get your shovel! And we'll dig a deep hole! To bury the castle, bury the castle! Ba ba da ba ba da ba ba da..."_ In her mind's eye, she saw Jemima running. She tripped, and everything bad about the whole thing came and surrounded her. Jemmy some how got away, ran a little farther, only to reach a big, door she couldn't open...

That was it. Demeter quickly rushed to her feet, unplugged all the machines attatched to Jemima, even pulled a few from her head.

Then Jemima's small form began breathing a little faster, and Demeter's spirits soared, but she wondered if she'd pulled everything too late. Jemmy sat up, looked at her in confusion, and said, "Dem? What was that all about?" Then Jemima shook her head, saw where she was, and said, "Oh no. Thank-you," she faced Demeter and pulled her into a hug. Demeter, however, was still trying to get over the fact that Jem was alright, and that they both might be. Then the two looked at each other and grinned, because the twins had just sent all the Jellicles a brainwave, _Doors are unlocked. We're busting out of here. _The two queens grabbed paws, looked at each other once more, and opened the unlocked door to the sweet sound of no alarms.

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**[A/N] That took FOREVER. But the song is Brick By Boring Brick by Paramore - my absolute FAVORITE band. But anyway... I'm done. Yahoo!**


End file.
